Intelligibility
Reading:
Y. Kachru & L. Smith,
Chapter 4


Identify and explain the difference between
‘intelligibility,’ ‘comprehensibility,’ and
‘interpretability.’
Discuss the implications of these three
concepts for your everyday life now and in
the future.

In South ___ Southeast Asia, given ___ general
identification ___ internationalisms ___ EuroAmerican colonialism, purification shows
tendencies ___ combating ‘cultural ___,’ much
more ___ neighboring vernaculars, ___ the more
___, since the latter have little ___ any national
significance.
◦ Fill in the blanks = intelligibility
◦ Paraphrase = comprehensibility
In South and Southeast Asia, given the general
identification of internationalisms with EuroAmerican colonialism, purification shows
tendencies of combating “cultural
colonialism” much more than neighboring
vernaculars, all the more so, since the latter
have little if any national significance.
From: Joshua Fishman, 1972. Language in
Sociocultural Change, Stanford University Press.
Kachru & Smith, Ch 4: Intelligibility & Interlocutors
In discussing social and cultural features of
non-native varieties of English, we need to
address the concept of intelligibility.
The reason for that is that questions of
intelligibility arise whenever there is variation
in language use.
And, non-native varieties of English, by
definition, exhibit variation; therefore it is
natural that intelligibility becomes an issue for
those using world Englishes across cultures.
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Kachru & Smith, Ch 4: Intelligibility & Interlocutors
Understanding and intelligibility are often
used interchangeably in conversation.
It is not uncommon for “intelligibility” to be
the cover term for all aspects of
understanding.
But in order to understand the social and
cultural features of the non-native variety of
Englishes, Kachru and Smith separate three
layers of understanding:
1. Intelligibility;
2. Comprehensibility;
3. Interpretability.
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Definition of Intelligibility
Intelligibility is the recognition of the words or
another sentence-level element of an
utterance.
E.g. “Anyone lived in a pretty how town”
What do we know about this utterance?
- It contains six English words;
- We know the meaning of every word in
the utterances.
- But, do we know what it means?
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Definition of Intelligibility
When told that it’s the first line in a poem by
e.e. cummings, we still not understand the
meaning of the utterance.
So, if we know the meaning of each word (or
at least almost all the words) in an utterance,
and recognize that the grammar appears
“appropriate”, we say that we have an
intelligibility of the utterance.
TEST: dictation to write down the
utterance.
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Tests of Intelligibility
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Ability to repeat the utterance
Ability to write the utterance
Volume, clarity, and speed of the recitation, as
well as presence or absence of outside noise,
would affect the intelligibility of an utterance.
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Definition of Comprehensibility
Intelligibility is the recognition of a word and/or
grammatical structure of an utterance.
Comprehensibility is the recognition of a
meaning attached to a word or utterance, i.e.
an understanding of a possible meaning.
E.g. When you hear the word ‘Please’, what do
you recognize about its contextual meaning?
- It’s a request or directive
- It’s usually polite
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Test of Comprehensibility
‘Please be prepared to leave the area by 3
pm!’
(1) Ability to paraphrase the utterance;
(2) Ability to answer a question like ‘What
time are we supposed to leave the area?’
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Intelligibility vs. Comprehensibility
Intelligibility and comprehensibility are
certainly interrelated but are not the same.
Intelligibility – usually refers to speech
perception
Comprehensibility – usually refers to what is
conveyed
In certain contexts, it is possible to have
intelligibility without comprehensibility and it
is possible to measure the difference between
them.
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From The Tiger’s Daughter (B. Mukherjee,
1972, p. 41)
“On her third day in Calcutta, Tara’s mother
took her to visit her relatives ... ‘Take us to
Southern Avenue first,’ the mother said to
the chauffeur.... ‘Yes, memsahib.’”
A Conversation in Australia:
Soon after arriving to live in Australia, David Cervi
was invited to an informal party and was to bring a
plate.
“Of course,” he replied. “Is there anything else you’re
short of – glasses, knives and forks, for example?”
“No,” replied his host, “I’ve got plenty of dishes. Just
bring some food for everyone to share.”
David immediately realized that, although as a
native speaker he had understood the words, he
had misunderstood their meaning.
Unidentified passage:
With hocked gems financing him, our hero bravely
defied all scornful laughter that tried to prevent
his scheme. ‘Your eyes deceive you,’ he had said,
‘an egg not a table correctly typifies this
unexplored planet.’ Now three sturdy sisters
sought proof, forging along – sometimes through
calm vastness, yet more often over turbulent
peaks and valleys. Days became weeks as many
doubters spread fearful rumors about the edge. At
last, from nowhere, welcomed winged creatures
appeared, signifying momentous success.
Interpretability
Interpretability refers to the recognition by the
hearer/reader of the intent of purpose of an
utterance, i.e. the intentionality of the utterance.
It is a more complex feature of understanding than
either intelligibility or comprehensibility because one
must know something about the cultural context of
the statement in order to have the medium to high
interpretability.
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‘So you’ve come? Is this your daughter that
you’ve told me about?’ a woman who was
sitting on a low raised place in the shop
greeted us.
‘Yes. Ee-nang, salute Koon Maa.’
from: Prajuab Thirabutana, 1972. Little Things,
Fontana.
In groups of 3-4 students, discuss whether there are problems
regarding an interpretability issue.
Chinese weekly Beijing Review:
Having destroyed the gang’s iron and steel and hat factories’
and condemned its crime of savagely attacking and
persecuting them, our cadres are displaying renewed
revolutionary spirit. (From Changing English, p. 7)
African English (Bokamba, 1992): Do you know whether the
President has left Nairobi in the following conversation:
A: “Hasn’t the President left Nairobi yet?”
B: “Yes.”
Interpretability
What are the problems regarding interpretability
in the following example:
While living in the United States, a Japanese
woman was invited by an American friend to
a disco party. She said, “Well, I don’t like
discos very much but I’ll consider it.”
She was surprised and displeased when her
friend called her on the day of the party to
say, “Are you ready? I’m on my way to pick
you up.”
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English language fluency and grammatical
competence facilitates successful intelligibility
and comprehensibility, but it is clearly not
sufficient for successful interpretability.
Interpretability requires cultural competence
as well.
◦ Includes pronunciation, intonation, vocabulary,
politeness strategies, appropriate topics of
conversation, sequence of information, ways of
greeting, showing agreement, using directives,
making refusals, leave-taking, etc.
Implications for
your future work?